Fans invited to Tuesday's UFC 152 press conference in Toronto

The event takes place at Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET (11:30 a.m. CT local time) and is free and open to the public.

Headlining the UFC 152 pay-per-view event, which takes place at Air Canada Centre on Sept. 22, is the first UFC flyweight title fight between Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson. The co-main event features middleweights Michael Bisping and Brian Stann, plus B.J. Penn returns to fight Canadian fan favorite Rory MacDonald.

Benavidez, Johnson, Bisping, Stann and MacDonald will join Tom Wright, the UFC’s director of Canadian operations, at the event. For those unable to attend, the news conference will stream live at UFC.com and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

UFC 152 tickets go on sale Friday to the general public. UFC Fight Club members can purchase tickets beginning Wednesday, and UFC e-newsletter subscribers can purchase a day early on Thursday. Ticket prices range from $85 to $550 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster and the Air Canada Centre box office.

UFC 152 will be the UFC’s second of three shows in Canada in 2012. This past Saturday’s UFC 149 took place in Calgary, and UFC 154 will take place in November in Montreal. The UFC visited Toronto for UFC 140 this past December at Air Canada Centre. And UFC 129 in April 2011 broke North America MMA attendance and gate records at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

Benavidez (16-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Johnson (15-2-1 MMA, 3-1-1 UFC) finally get a chance to fight for the flyweight title after a delay that started in March during a four-man tournament for the belt. Johnson’s fight with Ian McCall ended in a draw thanks to a commissioner’s error in Sydney, resulting in a rematch this past month. Johnson won that fight, moving him into the title bout with Benavidez, who has been waiting on the sidelines since his win over Yasuhiro Urushitani in Sydney.

Bisping (22-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) hasn’t fought since a close decision loss to Chael Sonnen in January. He was scheduled to fight Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 before a knee injury and subsequent surgery forced him to withdraw. Stann (12-4 MMA, 6-3 UFC) was expected to headline UFC on FOX 4 next month in Los Angeles against Hector Lombard, but was forced out with an injury. He suffered a second-round submission loss to Sonnen at this past October’s UFC 136, but rebounded in April with a first-round knockout of Alessio Sakara.

Penn (16-8-2 MMA, 12-7-2 UFC) is just 1-3-1 in his past five fights. The skid included losing his lightweight title – and a rematch – to Frankie Edgar. Following an October loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 137, Penn announced his retirement from MMA. But he’ll break that to meet MacDonald (13-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who is riding a three-fight streak with victories over Nate Diaz, Mike Pyle and Che Mills.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?